MOVIE MONDAY - MARIE ANTOINETTE

"Let Them Eat Cake..." - Misattributed to Marie Antoinette

Last weekend we watched Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” (2006) on DVD. We had heard conflicting reviews about this movie and it was interesting to watch it and compare it with the 1938 MGM classic “Marie Antoinette”. Visually, the Coppola version is sumptuous and stunning. The cinematography, the costumes, the sets, the sweeping landscapes and the brilliant colour bring the decadence of 18th century Versailles to life. It is a beautiful movie in terms of this visual feast. Kirsten Dunst cast as the ill-fated young queen plays well, although she has to deal with a difficult script and dialogue that totters between modern slang and stilted “olde-worlde” period-speak. Good supporting performances by Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis, Rip Torn, Marianne Faithfull and Asia Argento make the film watchable.

However, there are many problems and things that cannot be forgiven. This is definitely a movie where “Hollywood-does-history” in a self-indulgent and ultimately “box-office success” way so as to reassure the producers of a reasonable profit for their investment. The film has been made so as to appeal to a young audience. One reviewer called it “Gidget Goes to Versailles” and it was with good reason, too. The film concentrates much on Marie Antoinette’s life in Versailles on her occasional escapades to Paris, but there is nothing there to place her fairy-tale existence into context, no suggestion of how the final scenes in the film came about. One can expect a young impressionable person with little knowledge of history to see it and go away thinking: “Poor, sweet thing, whatever did she do to deserve a beheading? She was extravagant and owned lots of shoes and clothes and jewels, but she had to, didn’t she? She was a queen after all!”

I was uneasy about the other devices used to attract the young film-viewers. The anachronistic touches were heavy-handed and gimmicky. Putting in a pair of sneakers amongst the period shoes in the closet, for example? Funny? Hmmmmm. The soundtrack where modern rock alternated with 18th century music was particularly grating. It made the scenes where this occurred to look like some modern costume party. Hot pink dresses and pastries were really an eyesore, and in there obviously to appeal to the young irises that need the stimulation so that they do not wander away. I’ve mentioned already the language and slang used – perhaps the most forgivable of the anachronisms.

The other objection we had to the movie was the superficial way in which the politics of the era was handled. In the scenes where Louis XVI is having conferences with his advisors, matters of momentous national and international importance are treated in seconds and are oversimplified, as though the young things that watch the movie couldn’t possibly handle anything except “fun” and “exuberance” and “joie-de-vivre” and “pot-parties” and “love affairs”. That is really pandering to much of the youth of today, but at the same time it is making the mind-rot that has set in even worse.

The film was over-long at two-hours and there was only so much partying and extravagance and wild dancing and court parading that one could take. Contrasting scenes with what the ordinary people were experiencing in the streets of Paris would have made the movie more powerful and more engaging for me.

The earlier version of “Marie Antoinette” even though in black and white (sepia-tone) provided an equally sumptuous recreation of 18th century Versailles, but was balanced by more of the underlying sociopolitical situation in France at the time. Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette does a good job, although there is some melodrama (but it was the 1930s, remember!) and she is complemented by Robert Morley and Tyrone Power as Louis XVI and Count Axel respectively. This version of the film was based on Stefan Zweig’s biography, as opposed to Antonia Fraser’s biography, which was the basis of the Coppola film. There are flaws in this earlier film, also (history according to Hollywood can be very patchy and flaky), but overall, I enjoyed the earlier film more.

Do I recommend seeing Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette”? Yes, I do. However, if you have not done so already do read a good history book on the French Revolution first. And watch it at home with lots of popcorn and a few members of the family and friends around so you can amuse one another when the movie starts to drag.